Oliver Drake

I know alot of people on here know some of these details about Oliver Drake, but thought it was an interesting little blurb from FanGraphs regarding his background:

Oliver Drake may or may not make it to the big leagues. If he does, he?ll be a great story. In many ways, he already is.

A right-handed pitcher in the Baltimore Orioles organization, Drake lasted until the 43rd round of the 2008 draft. He had shoulder surgery two years ago and at age 26 has yet to pitch above Double-A. If he wasn?t playing professional baseball, he would likely be an officer in the military. Growing up, he wasn?t even sure baseball was his best sport.

?I was a pretty good hockey player,? explained Drake, who hails from Massachusetts. ?I was a forward and in the best school league in New England. When I turn on the TV, I see a bunch of guys I used to play against, like Max Pacioretty of the Canadians, Jonathan Quick, the goalie for the Kings ? guys who are in the NHL now.?

Drake wasn?t NHL material, and coming out of prep school it didn?t look like he?d be MLB material either. He enrolled in the Naval Academy, where he majored in quantitative economics. He also established himself on the baseball team and began catching the eye of scouts. They?d have watched him more carefully had they known his status.

?Teams hadn?t realized I was 21 and draft eligible,? said Drake. ?At the Naval Academy, West Point, and the Air Force Academy, anyone can leave, for any reason, before the start of their junior year. Most teams had only seen me once or twice with the intention of actually scouting me.?

The Orioles were among them, and took Drake late in the draft. After watching him pitch well in the Cal Ripken summer league, they inked him to a contract. That was mere weeks before Drake would have needed to sign full-commitment papers with the Naval Academy. It wasn?t an easy decision for the player currently rated the No. 24 prospect in the Baltimore system by Baseball America.

?There were times that summer where I thought I was going to stay,? said Drake. ?[but] a captain there sat me down. He looked at me and said, ?Oliver, you can always come back to a career in the military if baseball doesn?t work out, but you can?t do it the other way around. If you want to pursue baseball, this is your chance.??

Seven years later and fully healthy, the former Midshipman has a chance to one day pitch in Baltimore. Working out of the bullpen in Double-A Bowie last season, he had a 1.74 ERA and punched out 11 batters every nine innings. Drake features a fastball that touches 94 mph and a quality splitter.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/sunday-column-mets-indians-orioles-white-sox/

Hopefully he can keep his health this season, he's definitely a guy I've been keeping my eye on the last few years and has really done well with the transition to the bullpen. He's Tony's #23 prospect: http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php/137591-2013-23-prospect-Oliver-Drake-RHP

Great story.

I'm glad we didn't lose him. Any chance he transitions back to a starter?

Good stuff. Always great to know some of these guys come from good backrounds. Hope he makes it to Baltimore.

I'm glad we didn't lose him. Any chance he transitions back to a starter?

I sincerely doubt it, he's already 27 and has only pitched 2 innings at AAA. He's had shoulder surgery and even before that showed better in the bullpen then as a starter. As a reliever, his H/9 is great and he has fantastic K/9 numbers. As a starter, his H/9 jumps above 9.0 and his HR/9 and BB/9 numbers both increase significantly, and his K's fall in the same right. He's had great GB/AO ratios in the past, so if he can rediscover that, he could be a real solid middle reliever if not more than that. I could see him showing up this season at the bigs if he stays healthy.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=drake-001oli

Quantitative economics would translate nicely to Billy Beane's front office some day.

He's been one of my favorites for years. Here's hoping he can stay healthy. I think he's a viable bullpen alternative at some point in 2014.

I am one of the last guys that likes to see guys rushed up levels and all if you are not really dominating a league but come on. What else can this guy do. He has been at Bowie in 2012, 2013, 2014 and has an ERA under 2 in two of those years and this season 2.38 with 20 plus saves. It is not like Norfolk has a ton of ptching they have abut 5 guys I would let go right now that are pitching awful.

Innings pitched.

2012: 18

2013: 31

2014: 37

I think he is getting close, but he hasn't proven he can pitch effectively for long enough to warrant a full time promotion.

Gotta love his results, and if he keeps this up he could even fill in for the Orioles at some point this year should the bullpen really take some abuse.

Innings pitched.

2012: 18

2013: 31

2014: 37

I think he is getting close, but he hasn't proven he can pitch effectively for long enough to warrant a full time promotion.

Gotta love his results, and if he keeps this up he could even fill in for the Orioles at some point this year should the bullpen really take some abuse.

Yeah, he's on the injury track. That said, he's got the results out of the bullpen in the last 70 innings. I think he'd get a promotion to AAA and maybe some time in the majors if he stays healthy. I mean, he is 27 already and this is his 7th year in the organization.

Yeah, he's on the injury track. That said, he's got the results out of the bullpen in the last 70 innings. I think he'd get a promotion to AAA and maybe some time in the majors if he stays healthy. I mean, he is 27 already and this is his 7th year in the organization.

Oliver Drake was all but out of the organization after very poor performance recovering from some big injuries for a pitcher. He got with a personal trainer and has improved dramatically. Especially in his current, minor league, bullpen role. He was never selected in the rule five even while left unprotected.

Now he is coming off shoulder surgery, which can be just as challenging for a right-handed pitcher trying to climb up the minor-league ladder of an organization that suddenly has a bevy of young arms in the pipeline.

“I am just trying to be patient with everything,” said Drake, 26, sitting on a picnic table at the Buck O’Neill Baseball Complex at Twins Lake Park, the minor league headquarters of the Orioles. “I won’t be ready for a full-season team (in early April). I hope to join a team at some point this season.”

Drake is the No. 28 prospect in the Baltimore system, according to Baseball America. But he has not pitched in a game since May, when he made three starts for Class AA Bowie of the Eastern League. So what would be an ideal scenario for the coming months?

“Ideally for me is being healthy,” said Drake, after taking part in pitchers fielding practice on a sunny, cloudless day on the Gulf Coast on Monday. “Everything else is a bonus. The first thing is health and then I can start worrying about my performance. When I am healthy the baseball people can evaluate me. (Advancement) will be based on my performance.”

Drake, 6-foot-4, was drafted in the 43rd round by the Orioles out of Navy in 2008.

He was 8-3 with an ERA of 2.14 in 14 games (13 starts) for Class A Frederick in 2011 and also made five starts for Bowie and one appearance for Class AAA Norfolk that year.

He began last season on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation and after his third start with the Baysox had some more trouble.

“I felt fine during the game,” said Drake, who is from Gardner, Mass. “We had a bus trip to Akron and I woke up the next day and my shoulder was really stiff, more than normal.”

He had some treatment but still had discomfort and eventually had surgery in August in Delaware by Dr. Craig Morgan to repair some of the labrum near his shoulder. Morgan has also done procedures on Baltimore minor league pitchers Dan Klein and Matt Hobgood, according to Drake.

Drake came to Sarasota for about a week in early December to meet with Orioles’ trainers and got the go ahead to follow an off-season throwing program.

He threw indoors for the first time in Massachusetts and worked his way up from 45 feet to 60 feet to 90 feet and so on.

He saw Dr. Morgan in Delaware for a follow up visit in mid-February and threw outdoors in Northern Virginia around the same time while visiting former minor league teammate Kenny Moreland.

Harris arrived in Sarasota on Feb. 20 and has been throwing every other day at the minor league complex a few miles south of Ed Smith Stadium, the spring training home of the Major League club.

Orioles scout and Brooklyn Park resident Dean Albany, who followed Drake in college and signed him, knows the right-hander can bounce back from the surgical procedure.

“Oliver is a hard worker. He is a super, super, super young kid,” Albany said on Monday. “This will not deter him at all. His last outing before he got injured may have been one of the best of his professional career.”

http://www.capitalgazette.com/sports/pro_sports/navy-product-drake-aims-to-regain-form-with-orioles/article_2c0ce1f4-4b96-5c2a-8cb8-5469e1aa4ca7.html?mode=jqm

Oliver Drake was all but out of the organization after very poor performance recovering from some big injuries for a pitcher. He got with a personal trainer and has improved dramatically. Especially in his current, minor league, bullpen role. He was never selected in the rule five even while left unprotected.

I don't think he got selcected because he is not major league ready but at some point his numbers show he has nothing to prove in Bowie and the Norfolk pitching is horrible with a bunch of retreads. I would like to see what he can do in AAA this second half.

Innings pitched.

2012: 18

2013: 31

2014: 37

I think he is getting close, but he hasn't proven he can pitch effectively for long enough to warrant a full time promotion.

Gotta love his results, and if he keeps this up he could even fill in for the Orioles at some point this year should the bullpen really take some abuse.

I overheard a training discussion a couple years back where Dan Duquette recommended to Oliver that he get hooked up with the trainer that Ryan Flaherty had used in the offseason. Tony-OH always said that if they relieve in the minors, that they are not a prospect. Unless they close. Seems like that is what they want him to do. At whatever level. If he can stay healthy. WHich he has never really done as a pro.

After striking out the side today on 12 pitches, Oliver Drake is now 6 for 6 in save chances with 12 IP, 3 walks and 22 strikeouts. Looking good. I was not particularly impressed with his numbers last year at Bowie considering age and level but I have to say, now I am impressed.

You can't really ignore 22 K's in 12 innings, especially when accompanied by only 3 walks.